Mizoram Churches Support Over 2,000 Missionaries

By Achunga Chuaungo

The total number of Christians in Mizoram is thought to be 911,543 (84% of the population).

The Church in Mizoram sponsored over 2,000 missionaries in India and abroad this past year, according to an official data.

The Statistical Abstract of Mizoram 2011, published by Directorate of Economics and Statistics, states that 2,382 missionaries are sponsored by at least eight different church bodies.

Presbyterian Church of Mizoram sponsored 990 missionaries, of whom 472 are female and 518 are male. Baptist Church of Mizoram (BCM) sponsored 577 missionaries, United Pentecostal Church (North East India) (UPC-NEI) sponsored 125 and United Pentecostal Church (Mizoram) (UPC-Mz) 83.

Adding to the list would be the Salvation Army which sponsored 281, Seventh Day Adventist 57, Evangelical Church of Maraland (ECM) 247 and Lairam Isua Krista Baptist Kohhran (LIKBK/Jesus Christ Baptist Church of Lairam) 22.

Despite being one of the most backward state in India, the churches without fail raise funds “for the ministry of the Lord”, says Zosangliana Colney, leader of Mizoram Presbyterian Church.

Besides tithes and offerings, Christians in Mizoram still follow the practice of setting aside a handful of rice before every meal. The rice is then collected each week and sold or even sent to homes of missionaries. The impressive tradition supposedly began in the year 1914.

Meanwhile, going by the stats, the Mizoram Presbyterian is the biggest denomination having 472,840 members within the state, followed by BCM (146,331), UPC-NEI (91,720), UPC-Mz (41,558), Salvation Army (55,791) and Seventh Day Adventist (19,235).

It further reveals that there are 2,612 church buildings across the state. Also, there are 184 schools of which 89 belong to the Presbyterian Church and 46 to the Roman Catholic.

The total number of Christians is thought to be 911,543 (84% of the population).

According to the statistical abstract, published by the Government of Mizoram, the state has about 31,562 Hindus, 10,009 Muslims, 326 Sikhs and 179 Jains There are some 3,105 people following religions described as “others.”

Buddhism, with over 70,494 followers, is the second largest religion in Mizoram.

The population was based on the Census 2001 in which the number of Christians was placed at 7,72,809.

Mizoram, one of the Seven Sister States in Northeast India, shares land borders with Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Bangladesh and the Chin state of Burma. Thanks to English missionaries, the state ranks second in India with a literacy rate of 88.49%.

'Misogynist' Jibe at Assamese Outside State

By Gaurav Das

Guwahati, Jul 17 : As if derogatory terms like 'chinki' or 'junglee' weren't enough, people of the Assamese community, both students and working professions, are facing flak for the GS Road molestation incident in places like Bangalore and Delhi in the form of verbal taunts and jibes.

The city has now become synonymous with the July 9 incident. Just type 'g' and 'u' on search engine Google and the first links that come up are on the Guwahati molestation.

"I have been living in Delhi for the past 24 years, and I had created an impression in front of my non-Assamese friends that we, as a people, are free and open-minded; we have no dowry system and women get a special respect in our community. But after this incident, the non-Assamese people who know me have begun asking me whether this is the way the Assamese men treat their women. With this incident, the image of our people has taken a severe setback," said Ashim Dutta, a Delhi-based web designer and entrepreneur.

And it is not just the molestation incident that is behind this loss of face for the Assamese. The recent public thrashing of MLA Rumi Nath, which was caught live on camera, had sent shock waves across the nation. And the incident which was still fresh in the minds of people when the young girl was publicly molested by a mob on GS Road last Monday. The entire episode, which was recorded on camera, resulted in a massive national outrage.

The footage of the assault, which was being repeatedly aired by major national broadcasting networks, has not only enraged the general populace but put the spotlight on Assamese community. The incident has smudged and tainted the image of the docile Assamese, and this at a time when the state was just emerging from decades of insurgency, which had earned it the sobriquet of being 'strife-torn'.

Chandan Medhi, an Assamese software professional based in Bangalore, said, "The G S Road episode has given a chance to those who love to term Assam as some sort of savage land. Since the incident I've been barged with questions like 'Is this a regular affair?', 'Is this the way you all treat women for having a peg or two?', and the worst one - 'Are we misogynists?"

Anger in India After Floods Leave 109 Dead, 400,000 Homeless

* Brahmaputra River floods devastate Assam state
* PM Singh calls floods worst in recent times, promises aid
* State rich in oil, gas and timber


By Biswajyoti Das

PAZARBHANGA, July 17 :  India's annual monsoon has claimed 109 lives since rains started in June and left at least 400,000 people homeless in the northeastern state of Assam, in a tragedy experts say was made worse by corruption and poor management of the Brahmaputra River.

A senior member of the Assam Human Rights Commission, a government body, told Reuters it suspects millions of dollars meant for flood control have been siphoned off by state water department officials in the last five years. The commission has demanded a high-level investigation by the government.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the upper house of parliament, called the floods the worst in recent times and promised $1,800 to each victim's family in compensation. Critics say that much of the money will evaporate.

"Corruption is rampant before and after a flood," said Arup Misra, a prominent environmental activist in the state and a professor at Assam Engineering College. "Some officials eagerly wait for floods as they could make money on repairing of embankments and relief distribution."

Over the past 60 years successive governments have built levees along most of the length of the volatile Brahmaputra, which is Assam's main river and is fed by Himalayan snow melt and some of the world's heaviest rainfall. Experts say these embankments are both criminally under-maintained and a discredited form of flood management.

Assam is famed as a tea-growing region and rich in oil and timber. It is also home to the Kaziranga National Park that hosts two-thirds of the world's Great One-horned Rhinoceroses.

LEVEE BREACH DESTROYS HOMES
Nearly a decade ago, Hannan Sikdar's father lost his home and farm to floods in Assam. On June 28, the same fate struck Sikdar and his family of 10 when the Brahmaputra b u rst through a dike and swept away their home and everything they owned in the middle of the night.

Assam's population is on the rise, and like millions of others, Sikdar lived in a danger zone right next to the river's mud embankment. Millions of dollars were assigned to keep levees in good shape. But in eight years living there, Sikdar says nobody even came to talk about the risks.

"This was the place where we made our home when my father lost his property several years ago," said the 30-year-old, looking down at the wreckage of his bamboo and wood house from a new makeshift hut further along the embankment.

"We were never told that this embankment could break."

Rajiv Sinha, an expert on river dynamics, said the levees prevent the river from spreading silt in its natural flood plain, causing the river to clog up and increasing the frequency and intensity of floods. Similar embankments downstream in Bangladesh have also been blamed for devastating flooding.

"In the last fifty years, two things have happened -- the expenditure on flood control has increased tremendously, and at the same time the damage caused by floods has also increased exponentially," said Sinha, who teaches geosciences at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

Globally, flood management trends are moving away from levee-type measures to natural storage areas such as swamps and wetlands. But Assam has failed to come up with any modern, long-term plan to harness the river.

Entire villages, such as the one Sikdar belonged to, have cropped up in flood-prone areas and their only layer of protection is a neglected, crumbling mud wall.

As heavy rains continue, officials fear a second spell of floods soon, but victims such as Hanan Sikdar continue to live in tiny straw and tin shelters next to the broad river.

"People are living in danger zones out of compulsion," said Chandan Talukdar relief worker w ith Sikdar. "Till alternative land is found, these people will remain on embankments."

(Writing by Diksha Madhok; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Ed Lane)

Woman Journalist Shot And Injured in Arunachal

Itanagar, Jul 16 : A woman journalist was shot at by unknown gunmen and critically injured on Sunday when she was entering her office here in Arunachal Pradesh.

Gunmen shot journalist Tongam Rina of the Arunachal Times from close range when she was entering her office at about 6.15 pm, police said.

Thirty-four-year-old Rina is the associate editor of Arunachal Times, a popular daily and the first English newspaper of the state owned by former chief minister Gegong Apang.

Her backbone and intestines were affected by the bullets, police said.

Chief Minister Nabam Tuki rushed to the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital where she is undergoing an operation. The police have launched a manhunt to arrest the culprits, sources said.

All The Best For Northeast India Atheletes in London 2012

New Delhi, July 16 : Thank your stars, that’s just a life-sized portrait of Mary Kom. You would have been seeing stars if it were the Manipuri boxer in real life.

And, that’s Jayanta Talukdar who’s aiming the arrow just behind you.

The arrow will never leave the bow of the archer from Assam but, starting tomorrow, a campaign will take off to highlight the Northeast’s achievements as part of an elaborate national integration drive.

The campaign, initially in the form of huge hoardings, comes at a time India’s Olympic squad, which includes 10 participants from the region, is gearing for the London Games, scheduled to begin later this month.

Starting with Delhi, huge hoardings with photographs of the athletes will be put up in cities like Calcutta, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. Incidentally, the London Olympics was where Talimeren Ao, an Ao Naga, had led the Indian football team 64 years ago in the 1948 Games.

At home, Ao played for Calcutta club Mohun Bagan.

The campaign will, however, not end with the Olympics.

Over the next four to six months, the integration drive will focus on heroes from the Northeast in the fields of culture, music and science and technology. Among stalwarts from the region was the late Bhupen Hazarika, who enriched Indian music, while the Shillong Chamber Choir performed for Barack Obama when the US President visited India in November 2010.

“We hit upon the idea when some creative people were discussing the arrest of young people from the Northeast during a Tibetan protest,” said Mayank Jha of Delhi-based agency Basics Concept and Marketing that has handled campaigns for the Northeast earlier.

At the root of the campaign is the general lack of awareness about the region and a debate on discrimination against people based on physical appearances.

The campaign’s strength lies, perhaps, in avoiding the term Northeast, a tag absent from all the taglines. Yet, it is obvious because the five personalities inside each of the Olympic symbol’s five circles — which represent the five participating continents — on the hoardings come from Northeast states like Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

These are faces that have inspired youths not just in their own states but across India. “We wish all the best to India’s best,” says one tagline.

Another line — “Pride of India Inspiring India” — reflects what Indians feel when they see archer Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland) hit the bulls eye or Mary Kom (Manipur) punch the living daylights out of her stunned opponents.

While Mary is practising hard in Pune before her departure for London next week, her students in Imphal are also balling up their fists, straining every nerve and muscle to prove themselves. “We have a tournament going on at the academy,” her husband Onler Kom told The Telegraph from her boxing academy in Imphal.

The month-long national hoarding campaign in three phases will have photographs of five Olympians from the Northeast to begin with. Some of the 135 hoardings to be put up in the national capital are huge — one of them 12ft by 80ft. Some 100 hoardings are likely to be put up in Calcutta, sources said, while a huge one will greet passengers arriving at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. The hoardings will remain for about a week.

In the second phase, of about 10 days, pictures of other better-known heroes like Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra will intersperse photographs of those from the Northeast. The third phase will depend on performances at the Games.

The 80-odd Indian contingent includes 10 men and women from the Northeast. They include archers Talukdar (Assam), Tarundeep Rai (Sikkim) and L. Bombayala Devi (Manipur), boxers Mary Kom, L. Devendro Singh (Manipur) and Shiva Thapa (Assam), weightlifter Soniya Chanu (Manipur) and tennis player Somdev Devvarman, who has roots in Tripura.

Manipur Resolves To Adopt Inner Line Permit System

Imphal, Jul 17 : The state assembly on Friday passed a resolution to extend and adopt the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873, a statute under which the Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) is to be granted, with necessary changes in the point of details to the state, and to urge the Centre to comply with the same.

This came amid a growing public movement demanding enforcement of ILPS. The self-explanatory Joint Committee on ILPS, a conglomerate of several civil bodies of the state, even imposed a 24-hour 'public emergency' that ended on Friday midnight.

The house's resolution followed a private members' business moved by three legislators of the opposition Trinamool Congress led by I Ibohalbi Singh even as widespread demonstration and public rallies demanding implementation of ILPS in Manipur intensified on Friday.

26 New Orchid Species Found in Manipur

Imphal, Jul 16 : A research team of the Centre for Orchid Gene Conservation of the Eastern Himalayan Region, which conducted a survey in the forests of Manipur, found 26 new species of orchids, said SP Vij ,a globally-acclaimed orchid scientist and Principal Investigator (PI) of the centre.

Of the total 286 reported species of orchids grown in Manipur, the research team of the centre, located at Henbung hill range in Senapati district, has collected 211 species so far apart from the 26 new species found in Senapati and Ukhrul districts, said Vij, who is a retired professor of Punjab University involved with orchid research for nearly five decades.

"We have preserved all the 237 species at the centre's orchidarium and field gene bank. Our team will continue to survey the remaining hill districts of Tamenglong, Chandel and Churachandpur. We are expecting the orchid species count to reach 500 if we scan the entire jungles of Manipur," he said.

Set up in 2010, the centre funded by the ministry of science and technology, is headed by Vij and has around 20 staff, including scientists, technicians and junior research fellows. The centre's host institute is Foundation for Economic and Environment Development Services (Feeds), a prominent NGO headed by Haokholet Kipgen, a former legislator.

On Saturday, the centre's new research and development laboratory building was inaugurated by T Ramasami, secretary of the centre's department of science and technology. Kipgen said the orchids are globally adored, are therapeutically important and are used to cure different human ailments.

Stating that India is rich in orchid resource and the Indian Himalayan region alone is home to nearly 1,000 species, Kipgen said full realization of their economic potential has, however, remained abysmally slow due to lack of awareness about these plants and non-availability of suitable planting materials.

About the centre, Kipgen said it has an ultra-modern laboratory, an orchidarium and field gene bank spread over an area of 250 acres. The centre will make orchid germplasm available to growers, research institute, forest department and different universities of the country, he added.

Kipgen said the centre will focus on training, technology for protecting, restoring endangered species, identification of useful species, cultivation, processing, packaging, marketing and maintain links with collectors, farmers and those who deal with medicinal plants.

RK Kishore, senior scientist in the centre said field survey to collect orchid species will be conducted very soon. SN Puri, vice chancellor of Central Agricultural University, Imphal and deputy commissioner (Senapati) PK Jha attended the inaugural ceremony.

Mizoram To Introduce Helicopter Service in Remote Areas

Aizawl, Jul 16 :  Mizoram will soon introduce helicopter services to remote areas to supervise developmental works, provide connectivity to people in emergency situations and carry dignitaries, an official said here Sunday.

"The helicopter service would be utilised for supervising developmental works, offering medical care during emergencies, facilitating visits of dignitaries in remote areas and carrying passengers in any emergency situation," a Mizoram government official said.

He added that a tender has already been floated for selecting the service provider.

"One twin engine helicopter with carrying capacity of minimum six-seven passengers excluding crew would be pressed into service," the official said.

It will help improve accessibility in remote, hilly and areas bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh during monsoon (June to Sept) or in emergency situations.

For the last 10 years, India's national helicopter company Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. has been operating services in the interior areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland and Manipur with the union home ministry subsidising fares by up to 75 percent.